Beyond the Hype. AI and Law: An Update

To go by some media reports, one might be forgiven for thinking that the lawyer of the 21st century is destined for the same fate as the switchboard operator or the ‘knock-er-upper’ in the 20th – rendered superfluous by the accelerating march of automation. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are suspected of taking over a large part of what is presently done by human lawyers. Our research has suggested that the future may not be quite so bleak. The practice of law will, however, change and, as with other forms of technological change, that change will not necessarily happen in an orderly or linear fashion. In this article, we suggest some of the areas where that change might be most pronounced.